What many Americans may not know is that this very past week — May 29th to be specific — was President John F. Kennedy’s birthday. To be specific, his 108th.
For those old enough (ahem!) to recall, November 22, 1963, has never and will never lose the sharp pain of the memory.
As a young student finishing up just another day in school, something was suddenly amiss. As kids filled the hallways and playground to head home — in my hometown of Northampton, Massachusetts, it was the usual 2:30 “school’s out” time — there was something going on with all of us. Kids were suddenly whispering among themselves, a decidedly unlikely characteristic for a normally laughing, chatting, and more than occasionally loud crowd who would normally be looking forward to the weekend on a Friday.
What was this?
The whisper finally reached me. There was a story out there — and recall, this was long before cell phones and televisions in classrooms — that something had happened to President Kennedy. In fact, it was being whispered in observably horrified voices that the President had been shot. There was even a tale that he had been killed. (RELATED: The Spectacle Ep. 223: Uncovering the Truth Of JFK’s Assassination)
By the time I had climbed on my bike and peddled the short distance to my mother’s office, where she worked as the executive assistant to the Smith College English and History Department, it was abundantly clear there was something up. There was Mom, uncharacteristically not in her office but standing outside it, as she and a collection of Smith College professors and others in jobs similar to hers stood speaking quietly. The whispers on the school playground were true.
President John F. Kennedy, a former U.S. Senator from Massachusetts whom, in fact, my own politically involved father knew, had been shot and killed in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas.
I raced home and into the house, quickly turning on the family television, which was, as it happened, tuned to CBS. And there on the black and white screen was America’s news icon of the day — anchor Walter Cronkite.
Uncharacteristically, “Uncle Walter” (as he had long since come to be dubbed by media types awed by his fatherly appearance and authoritative tone) was sitting on camera dressed not in his usual suit but simply in his shirt and tie. And as he discussed the fact that JFK had been shot, he then announced that “it was apparently official” that the President had indeed died of his wounds. He removes his glasses to announce that he didn’t know where Vice President Lyndon John had “proceeded.” Clearly, Uncle Walter was stunned and upset.
From that moment proceeded what was seen at the time as four of the longest and darkest days in American history.
While, in fact, there had been three previous presidents who had been assassinated — Lincoln in 1865, Garfield in 1881, and McKinley in 1901 — this was the first time such a horrendous event had taken place in the day and age of television.
Every minute of the next four days after those shots were fired was devoted to live television covering every aspect of the events that followed. The return of the president’s casket to the White House, the stream of VIP visitors over the next day, the casket lying in state in the East Room of the White House, the funeral service, the slow march to Arlington Cemetery for the final service and burial.
On Sunday morning, with the nation watching, stunningly, the cameras were rolling live when alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was transferred out of the local jail to a different facility. Out of the watching crowd in the police basement suddenly emerged a dark-suited figure who lunged in Oswald’s direction, pistol in hand. In a blink, police insider Jack Ruby had shot Oswald in the stomach, wounds from which Oswald quickly died.
What was also happening during those four days was something no one saw coming. It was the birth of JFK as an American martyr, a legend in American history. The legend: The young war hero PT-Boat commander from World War II, the handsome young senator with the beautiful wife and two young children, the young president who had enchanted both America and the world. The hero who had faced down the Russians in the Cuban Missile Crisis and stood up for black Americans in the civil rights movement.
And it was also soon obvious that JFK had been transformed into an inspiration for a whole generation of young Americans. Young Americans who would go on to devote their lives to politics and government, running for office, serving in office, fanning out across the country in every office there was to be had. All done in the service of JFK’s call to “get America moving again.”
To look around the America of 2025, the JFK influence is everywhere. In Washington, there sits the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In Arlington Cemetery, generations of visitors have visited his grave site with the “Eternal Flame” at his grave, lit by his wife at his burial.
From one end of the country to the other, there are schools, office buildings, and more bearing his name. In the current Republican Trump administration, a JFK nephew, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., sits as the decidedly influential secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
The point?
No one could have predicted when I was a kid that the young president then in the White House would assume such a major role in 20th-century American history. Much less would it have been seen that as the decades stretched out from his passing and into the 21st century, his impact would be seen on one generation after another. Whether it was a Democrat named Bill Clinton or a Republican named Ronald Reagan, the JFK influence on future presidents would have a genuine hold on American history.
Back there in the Reagan presidency — in 1985, to be specific — President Reagan himself happily agreed to raise money for the John F. Kennedy Library. JFK, of course, had been unable to perform that routine task of presidents, and when asked by Caroline and John F. Kennedy Jr., Reagan happily agreed to do so.
On the 108th birthday of JFK, it is for sure a moment to reflect a moment on what President Reagan had to say about his predecessor. In brief, Reagan said this:
I was very pleased a few months ago when Caroline and John came to see me and to ask for our support in helping the library. I thought afterwards what fine young people they are and what a fine testament they are to their mother and father.
…But I must confess that ever since Caroline and John came by, I’ve found myself thinking not so much about the John F. Kennedy Library as about the man himself and what his life meant to our country and our times, particularly to the history of this century.
…Many men are great, but few capture the imagination and the spirit of the times. The ones who do are unforgettable. Four administrations have passed since John Kennedy’s death; five Presidents have occupied the Oval Office, and I feel sure that each of them thought of John Kennedy now and then and his thousand days in the White House.
And sometimes I want to say to those who are still in school and who sometimes think that history is a dry thing that lives in a book: Nothing is ever lost in that great house; some music plays on.
History is not only made by people; it is people. And so, history is, as young John Kennedy demonstrated, as heroic as you want it to be, as heroic as you are.
Reagan’s wisdom is itself now history, as he has himself long since joined the iconic hall of presidents who not only lived history but also teach it by example.
Without question, every president has to face their own time dealing with history’s challenges. As this is written, it is President Donald Trump’s moment to deal with the challenges of today’s world. And clearly, most Americans think Trump is meeting those challenges in Kennedy/Reagan fashion.
The world — and history — keeps moving. But on this particular occasion of the young president’s 108th birthday, it is more than appropriate to take a moment and look back at John F. Kennedy’s contributions to America and the world.
There were many.
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